To mark their 40th anniversary, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) board approved up to $425 million in grants during 2013. Funding will focus on helping people stay healthy, lowering national healthcare costs, improving access to high-quality care, and to support a diverse and abundant workforce. RWJF intends to award the funds to hundreds of organizations working to improve health nationally and to dozens of targeted communities.
RWJF’s contributions to healthcare are vast. Work supported by the Foundation in previous decades directly contributed to forging the nation’s 911 emergency system, the landmark Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, produced dramatic reductions in the use of tobacco products, and changed perceptions about hospice care at the end of life.
“Whatever issues are the most vexing such as responding to AIDS, unprecedented shortage of nurses, millions of children being uninsured, astounding racial inequalities in health care, the Foundation has always worked with the issues,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, RWJF President and CEO. “We cannot accept our responsibility as America’s largest healthcare philanthropy if we run from the toughest problems.”
Grant programs in 2012 helped to:
- Improve care for chronically ill people living in rural areas (Project Echo)
- Raise the quality of care (Aligning Forces for Quality)
- Create future healthcare leaders (RWJF Clinical Scholars Program)
- Make neighborhoods healthy and safe (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps)
- Reverse the obesity epidemic (Childhood Obesity)
- Better understand health and health systems (Dartmouth Atlas Project)
- Ensure that America’s primary care needs are met (Future of Nursing Campaign for Action)
- Re-imagine long term care (Green House Concept)
RWJF was formed in 1972 after the death of Robert Wood Johnson II, former Chairman Of Johnson & Johnson. Its initial funding was roughly $1.2 billion. Today, RWJF has an endowment of roughly $9 billion.
For more information, go to www.rwjf.org.
